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The Glassing Of Sarah V
The dimly lit kitchen was much smaller than all the military ones Commander Carter, A.K.A Noble One, had ever been in. It had white tiles on it's floor, wooden paneling on the walls, nice appliances his subordinate Kat would love to take apart, and a round table in the center, which made him think of the Round Table and King Arther, which he had read about in training. "Where is she?", the firm Spartan asked. His deep blue armor made him look twice as big as he really was, and that was still huge. "In the basement. It's locked up, in case it. . .", Mrs. Jekyll trembles as she speaks, her wavering voice trails off. Great. Either the child's got problems or this woman does, thought Noble One. "Mrs. Jekyll, I need the full story." "The thing changes at night. Talks in its sleep. Wakes us all up screaming about a glassing...it thinks there is Covenant above it every night.", Mrs. Jekyll confides, her hands shaking. Her graying brown hair is down and untidy, and the blue dress she slipped on when she heard the intruders enter her house was not becoming. "And the child's been living with you how long?", the Noble team commander prodded. "It's been here a year.", was the response. Mrs. Jekyll sounded like she was talking about a convicted murderer. "How old is he?" Carter hoped the woman would stop saying 'it'. You used 'it' for objects and Covenant, not glassing veterans, as was suspected. Most kids who came out of a glassing alive were orphans, and people adopted them out of pity, not personal liking. Often the foster families didn't notice the psychological problems until it was too late and they killed themselves. Military orphanages left the therapy to the foster families. "Fifteen,” Mrs. Jekyll spat the word, seemingly angry to have to refer to her adopted child as human. "Any other unusual behavior or conditions you would like to report, ma'am? ", the Noble One had this woman analyzed. She was not happy with the military, and was incensed that there were Spartans in her house. ". . . no. . . " As she said this, the small woman averted her eyes like she had noticed more, but feared they wouldn't take their foster demon away if it had more problems. But, if the child didn't have problems, a team of Spartans wouldn't want to recall him. It was also suspected that the subject had valuable information. "Would you allow us to take the child to a facility where he could get the care he needs?”, Carter asked this knowing the answer. He didn't need words, Noble One could tell just from Mrs. Jekyll's face, but she replied anyway. Mrs. Jekyll clasped her hands and prayed "Please God, take her!!" Commander Carter turned away from the trembling woman and found the stairs to the basement. The door way to the stairs was narrow, and if it had been any smaller, Carter's six and a half foot frame couldn't have fit through. A cool, dank smell draped over everything, like darkness. Carter's subordinate, Emile, loomed in one corner. Though the basement was dark, the white skull painted on his helmet glowed like a ghost. "He's in here, sir." moaned the deadly ghost, rapping lightly on the bedroom door of the subject. The sight of the door unnerved Carter, bringing back memories of what was behind closed doors at the Spartan academy. There was a vent at the top, Noble One couldn't see any light through it,"Emile, have you talked to the subject yet? ", Comm. Carter asked, pressing his ear up to the door, he could hear soft, easy breathing. "No, sir. The doors locked. Need a key.", the ghost answers, glancing around the room uneasily, gun ready to fire at anything moving. Emile was jumpy when he was around civilians, sometimes he was down right violent. Normally he wouldn't be sent on such an interactive mission, but his usual substitute was busy. "Okay. Send Jorge down with the key. Tell him he's gonna wake the kid up, so drop his weapons, and get ready to deal with some PTSD.", ordered the commander. As Emile's footsteps pounded up the stairs, Carter didn't hear the smaller, softer footsteps descending them. The footsteps belonged to a tall and thin teenage boy, with white blond hair and brown eyes. The boy held the look of a frightened, out-of-place mouse trying to be brave in the face of danger. You could almost see him trembling. "What do you need, kid?", Carter asked, even he had a short temper when civilians interfered with a mission. And this one would probably interfere with them removing the subject in some way. "Um, I'm Mason Jekyll, I'm friends with Jun.", he introduced himself, "She's got PTSD from getting caught in a glassing with her family. I tried to get my parents to get her treatment, but they did the worst thing and locked her down here. They call her 'it' right to her face, and were horrible whenever she had night terrors . . . are you here to get her treated? " Mason's voice wavered at first, but gained a strength and firmness. "We're here to get the child treatment and see if she has any information on the Covenant or the rebels. Can you tell me about her ?", Noble One asked, hoping to find out if she could give the UNSC a boost, and noticing the child was, apparently, a girl. "Her name's Jun Hyde. She hates to be locked in anywhere, and does a lot of exercise, to the point where she may pass out from working too hard. When she can, she eats pretty healthy, Jun really hates eating too rich or too processed foods, but she'll eat almost anything. You can tick her off pretty easily, and she pretends not to care, but she'll really worry. If someone gets her out of a scrape,or gives her a hand or even a bit of advice, she's very trusting. It's hard for her to cope when she gets moved around to much. Loves to fly, whiz at chemistry, great reader and runner. You gotta take care of her.", Mason said, his voice taking on an air of desperation. There was no useful information in his speech. Stuff for the asylum records, thought Carter. "Look here, kid. There's very little point in telling me this. I won't be taking care of this girl, I'm just getting her out of here.",Carter was getting impatient, he had work to do. He was only here to extract the subject, then deliver her to a military base for analyzing. At that point, it was out of his hands. It wasn't like Spartans could adopt any object of interest at will. "NO!! You have to take care of her!She won't trust anyone else!! ", the boy yelled so loud that the lieutenant commander and Jorge ran down the stairs to see what the matter was. The Commander looked upset, the boy stressed and angry. Mason was Kat looked inquiringly at Carter,"Commander ? " "Kat, escort this boy to his parents. He's been giving me some advice. Jorge, over here. Set your gun down.", Noble One gestured to the huge turret Jorge carried everywhere,"The subject's probably still asleep. She's going to be scared, she's got PTSD. You need to get her ready to go ."Carter watched as his second in command walked Mason up the stairs."Tell her I said Goodbye.", and he continued up the steps with Kat's firm grip on his shoulders. "He was?", Jorge prodded . "The son, I'll fill you all in later. You have the key?" "Yes-sir. How do you suppose she's still asleep? We haven't exactly been quiet.” “Don't know. The way things are going, the family could've drugged her. But what studies of prisoners show us is that when a person is locked up, they tend to push themselves farther and harder in the way of exercise for lack of anything to do. Could be she's wearing herself down all day and passing out at the end. We don't know how much they feed her, and that kid told me the subject does a lot of exercise.”, Carter replied. How did he know that again? “I'm just anxious to get away from the civilians. These ones put even me on edge.”,Jorge remarked. “Get a move on, then.” said Carter, then he thought,'Some types get to the best of us.'His Mark VI armor was starting to feel very heavy, he had performed over six missions in the last week with little break time. There was only one mission left after this one, and the Spartans of Noble Team were promised a long break after this. Jorge removed his helmet and unlocked the wooden door, barely fitting through the small door frame. "Hello?", he called, but the only answer was a groan smothered by blankets,"Hey. Wake up.", he repeated softly. The shadow in the bed moved around and turned a lamp on next to her bed. The girl was tall and thin ,she looked able, but not extremely strong. Black hair kept falling into her eyes as she tried to take in the hulking figure by her bed, and as she brushed it out of her face, Jorge noticed one eye was green and one gray."Who are you?”, Jun asked, for lack of other words. "My name is Jorge, Spartan II. You?", He knelt down to be eye level with her. "Jun Hyde...", she replied, her black shoulder length hair fell back into her eyes. As Jorge urged Hyde to go with them, Carter stood in the doorway and watched his Chief Warrant Officer calm her and prepare her for the next few weeks."Ready?", Carter asked after 20 minutes. "Yes, sir. . . Hyde is going to get dressed and pack anything she wants to take. Right ?", at the last word Jorge turned his head to the girl, and she nodded back. "Don't pack clothes or food, we've got those.", Carter advised, closing the door behind Jorge, after he had squeezed out of the room. I doubt she'll have trouble saying goodbye, thought the Commander. Jorge and Carter ascended the stairs to see how the operation was going from there. Noble Team was packed up and ready to bail. Emile was already standing by the front door, doing nothing. Kat and Jun were interrogating the Jekyll couple, to no apparent avail. Thom, the second lieutenant of the team, was chatting with Mason Jekyll, who wore a grim expression, and glared at Carter as he walked past. Carter had to think. Mason was probably the only thing that would keep Hyde from going with them. The UNSC needed her. She held valuable information about the Covenant and the attack on Sarah V, the planet she had been on when it was glassed, mercilessly destroyed by the hostile alien Covenant. Jun Hyde was famous among the higher ranks of the military, because the destruction of Sarah V was thought to be absolute. How had a child been able to survive it? Despite her fame, little was known about her. The family of Hyde, her gender, full name, and age were complete mysteries, as well as her whereabouts. Carter was high enough in rank to have heard of Hyde and received this mission, which was supposed to be carried out without the rest of the squad knowing the true intent, but the Lieutenant Commander 'over heard ' some 'irrelevant' chatter on a locked radio channel, and informed the rest of Noble . It wasn't long before Hyde emerged from the basement, carrying a army green medic bag and, wearing a leather jacket under an air force jacket, with combat boots and jeans.”I'm ready.”,Hyde stated, then turned to Mason for a second,”See you around.” “Yeah. Sorry. I'll try to call you, if I can.”, and he waved to her as she turned and Thom led her out the door. The cold night air seemed to be amplified by the cold silver light of the full moon. Rags of clouds whisked over the stars ,casting ominous shadows on the fields of wheat around the little house. The six Spartans loaded into the van. Thom got in the driver's seat and started the radio, turning it to an station playing the Beatles. Emile commented ,” You still listening' to that junk, Lieutenant? “Carter got in the front passenger seat, and the rest loaded into the back seats. Terrifying images drifted in and out of Hyde's mind as the line between sleep and consciousness grew less obvious. The Covenant above her. . .”I'll be right back, promise. “, vows her mother, as Hyde begs her to stay,"Don't go up there! The monsters are there!! MOOOOOM!!” , and then her mother's sweeping black hair disappears forever through the basement door, and there's a huge thing standing in the door way... the mouth opening outward in four sections, howling as another, smaller thing shoots it from behind . . . a human thing . . . a Spartan? The Spartan shook her awake, calling, “Are you okay?” “Yeah. . . tired, still.” Hyde mumbled. “Well, we did get you up at midnight. As soon as we get to the rest point, you can sleep. “, Jorge assured her. Hyde asked where the 'rest point' was. Jorge answered, “Some hotel a ways out. You'll stay there while we finish our next mission.”, and then he didn't say anything else for the whole drive. Hyde just listened to I Will Follow You Into The Dark on the radio and tried to stay awake. How long until there was something that made sense in her life? Hyde still didn't understand the glassing she lost her family in. And what about her sister? Hadn't she left the planet with her? Or did she get left behind?